The former astronaut Valentin Lebedev’s critical view (see NOVINKY 30/6/2009: http://www.sovross.ru/...) was commented upon by an IAA regular member Assoc. Prof. Josef Dvořák on 9 July 2009. His comments were made to the website "Mars500.cz":

A) The Necessity of Performing a Flight to Mars:
(1) I am essentially against human space flights, robots should go there and this will become commonplace as early as in this century. However, we cannot send robots to the places we do not know well. And flights to the Moon have shown it is impossible now without people – experts, not only astronauts/pilots! Therefore, the main task is to determine the conditions of sending robots to Mars.
(3) Why to Mars? – As it is possible. The same does not apply to other planets in the solar system.
- What do we expect to discover there? We expect to discover what we have not expected (Hubble).
- We will find the answer to the question whether global warming is an earth-bound issue (we might be able to do something about it) or a solar issue (we are not able to do anything about it). (The last ice age on Mars seems to be nearing its end. So, why shall we conclude any emissions agreements?).
- Columbus, Magellan and Drake totally changed the cultural development of mankind. The same may apply to a flight to Mars. Among other things, it may start the era of mini-robot space flights, which would enable a flight to Titan. This might be of crucial importance for solving two essential issues of 21st century – energy storing and artificial food production (on Titan, hydrocarbons are created in great amounts at low temperatures).
- Prestige. Politics was, is and will always be the struggle for power! In this century, great civilizations will not use weapons to make wars. The power issue will be a matter of the struggle for prestige in the field of technology – in this respect, a flight to Mars is one of the winning cards.

(B) Lebedev’s Views:
(1) They bear evidence of Russian self-centredness. There is nothing else besides them. However,:
- Moscow’s simulator certainly has limitations, but it is very important for methodology testing – social surveying; - active habitat; - long-lasting stay in the closed atmospheric circuit (see the American experiment failure). But attention is particularly paid to the question of what to do when flying to Mars! How boring it must be! But I have not found anywhere what meaningful activities could be done during a long-lasting flight to Mars. However, there are two essential facts relating to the isolation simulating a flight to Mars: immunity decrease and general weakening of the organism caused by the lack of movement in a limited space when the afference level (the reception of signals by the brain in restricted space) decreases. The Moscow experiment simulates this quite well.
- The idea of an ISS simulator is not bad, especially, when you take it into account that the role of the Russians as a carrier is second-rate. Moreover, ISS astronauts are mainly involved in maintenance and servicing, for which three people are enough. But some time ago, an “ISS” with up to 50 astronauts was considered!!! (Wow!).
- The ISS simulator may raise Russia’s prestige within this project, but it does not provide any solutions to the issue of long-lasting isolation (there are no emotions evoked by the fact that the experiment simply cannot be disrupted); however, a solution to this is provided within the experiment on the ESA Concordia Antarctic Base (http://www.esa.int/...), which is really inaccessible for several months in winter (this is Germans’ business). Lebedev has not commented on this programme at all!
- The issues related to long-lasting isolation and stays in the cosmic vacuum are being solved within the American Moon Lab Project. NASA has an opinion that a human flight to Mars is impossible without the inter-phase of building a lunar lab. This particularly applies to the issue of the impossibility of helping promptly in case of emergency and in case of being in a space suit in the vacuum. Lebedev has not commented on this programme either. A lunar lab project, which was really considered some time ago, has been rejected as it is of no military importance. I am in doubt whether they are now capable of this at all. But the Chinese have announced they are considering that.

(C) Economic Reflections on the Feasibility of a Flight to Mars:
In these days, when the US annual military budget amounts to USD 850 billion, expenditure on a flight to Mars is really a triviality.

(D) In his reflections on psychology, Lebedev does not give the practical experience from expeditions in similar conditions his consideration. Columbus and Magellan are not suitable examples. But what about two years in total isolation in the Arctic (Nansen, Fram) or even three years in a Canadian archipelago (Sverdrup, Fram) around 1900? One of the expedition members even died suddenly of heart failure for unclear reasons (stress?). The stress the crew experienced was enormous. They had no radio to listen to, and they were in absolute isolation and monotonous environment. The only things absent were weightlessness and vacuum.

Assoc. Prof. Josef Dvořák